[Santosh83]

Power to the user is one aspect of personal computing. But with the rise of mobile and now IoT, the user has also become (increasingly) a 'consumer', and thus the software and hardware are getting more and more locked down. Hardware and software manufacturers will sleep easier at night when their products cannot (or can only limitedly) be modified.

I think the writing is on the wall. Computing devices will split into two diverging branches: one tailored for limited configuration and aimed at media consumption and use by non-tech users, the other providing (hopefully) full freedom to modify, aimed at IT co. and interested hobbyists. It will be quite some achievement if mechanisms to increase vendor control aren't increasingly integrated even into the devices in the second segment, as things like Intel ME/UEFI Secure Boot show.